“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32)
Day 1 of my bell ringing mission.
Before Christmas, I was privileged to spend four days smiling, dancing, greeting, and loving my community by ringing a bell outside my local Sam’s Club to collect money for my local Salvation Army. Notice I didn’t say that I was a bellringer. I was more than that. I was a giver and receiver of love – God’s love.
While I played music and rang a bell for hours each day, I also simultaneously offered blessings to everyone who walked past me. I never asked anyone for money. I just gave love – with my energy, smiles, and joy. The donations that came in, simply because people knew my cause was worthy and recognized the Red Kettle, blew me away – every single day. In fact, my kettle was so full at the end of my first day that the local coordinator provided me with two kettles each day thereafter.
Every day, someone touched my heart and soul. There was the man who, while riding by on his scooter, stopped to tell me he was in constant pain but still wanted to give to others. After telling him that I’d pray for him, he thanked me. “Sometimes, God uses pain to get our attention,” I said. He said he knew that, confirming he gave our Savior thanks every day for the ability to keep moving.
My Salvation Army Red Kettle was full to overflowing on the evening of my first dayof volunteer service.
There was the woman who told me it was her 65th birthday as she placed money in the kettle for others on her special day. I asked her if I could sing her the unique song my family has been repeating on birthdays since I was four years old. She agreed, so I showered her with “A happy birthday to you. A happy birthday to you. Every day of the year, may you find Jesus near. A happy birthday to you. A happy birthday to you. May this be your most blessed year!” When I was done, I hugged her and told her she was a blessing. She responded by saying that my simple song “made her day,” while I assured her that she had made mine!
Day 2 of bell ringing.
There was also the pastor I didn’t know was a pastor, who went to his car, came back with a church newsletter, and handed it to me, saying, “You blessed me, now I want to bless you.” The newsletter featured a story he’d written, years before, talking about a classic car his father had helped him buy as a young man, and how much it meant to him. It seems that his father never expressed emotion, so he learned to withhold his feelings in the same way. When his father gave him what he perceived as an ugly, distasteful car ornament to add to the car, he withheld doing so for years, thinking he didn’t want to demean the car’s value by adding it.
Privately, he hadn’t thought about this ornament for decades, choosing to hide it just as he’d hidden his emotions. It was only when deciding to share the story in a sermon analogy that he faced the raw emotion of how we often hide our faith in Christ, never wanting to offend or demean others with His blood and sacrifice. As it turns out, the day he shared this story, his parents came to hear him preach – nearly causing him to rethink what he would openly disclose to both his congregation and father.
Day 3.
While urging his congregants never to be afraid of public perception, he looked over at his dad, who was wiping tears from his eyes. At that moment, the pastor left his pulpit, walked directly to his father, pulled him out of the pews, and told him he loved him. As the congregation cheered, he reminded everyone never to be afraid to show God’s love.
And so, I won’t. Whether it’s in front of Sam’s Club as I told every passerby, “God bless you” and “Merry Christmas” while playing traditional and contemporary carols, proclaiming the joy of Jesus, or by standing unafraid to tell others in my workplace how the light they see is Christ in me, we all must stand unafraid to talk to others about our Savior.
Day 4.Bell ringing on Christmas Eve.
Matthew 10:8 reminds us, “Freely you have received; freely give.” More important than filling a Red Kettle, may we generously bestow the love that Christ so sacrificially gave to us. If He could hang on a cross – stripped, broken, and bleeding to show His compassion for us – how can we give anything less to a world that so desperately needs Him?
We are the only gospel that many people will ever see – the only church they may ever know. We are Christ’s church, and everything we do should glorify our Savior and proclaim His love. This year, I am praying that God gives me more boldness, more faith, more passion for His faithfulness. I would be nothing without Christ. May I never be afraid to say so. May we all do the same.
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.'” (John 15:18-27)
It finally dawned on me why there is so much toxic vitriol directed at Charlie Kirk. It’s not about the man who stood fearlessly for his faith, freedom, and family at college campuses across our country. Ultimately, this is all about God.
From the moment a sniper’s bullet hit Kirk, many people celebrated this violent act. Videos of people clapping, cheering, and celebrating the death of a 31-year-old father, husband, and Christian man are visible all across social media. When word spread that Charlie was dead, the evil rhetoric didn’t end – in fact, it intensified. The more Kirk’s friends, associates, and even our president lauded him, the more people seemed to justify their hatred of this conservative leader.
Where does all this anger come from? How can so many people find it acceptable to celebrate the death of someone they didn’t even know? Is this all about Charlie’s political views, or is it more about his Biblical stances?
Charlie Kirk was a man of God. He spoke unashamedly about Biblical truths related to traditional marriage. Charlie attested to the spiritual, mental, and emotional values of celebrating one’s God-given gender and living in a traditional, heterosexual marriage. Unfortunately, such talk in today’s cultural environment is considered by many to be a form of hate speech. In fact, had Charlie espoused such beliefs in the U.K., he could have been arrested and incarcerated for simply sharing Biblical concepts in a public setting, as Pastor John Sherwood was. In fact, a recent Telegraph article, published on Sept. 3, 2025, details how an average of over 30 people are being arrested daily in the U.K. for violating new hate speech laws. Their “crimes” include such things as praying outside abortion facilities, using the wrong pronoun for trans individuals, or even posting negative information about one’s boss.
According to PreventHate.org, Section 4 of the U.K. Public Order Act 1986 makes it illegal to use “words or behaviors that are threatening, abusive, or insulting and that are likely to cause annoyance, alarm, or distress to another person.” Such a perceived offense can be deemed criminal under these new laws – a frightening concept.
Political correctness now means that anything less than complete acceptance of who, what, and how others are living may be deemed hateful by others, to the point where such perceived “hate” is legally worthy of arrest, incarceration, or even – in Kirk’s case – death.
Although this anger is being manifested at a man who can no longer defend himself, logically speaking, the one they’re angry at is God. The outcry may be perceived to be against Charlie, yes. But Kirk’s stances were our Creator’s. His arguments were intended to spark debate and encourage others to delve deeper into God’s Word. To argue with Kirk is to rage against the wisdom of the Almighty.
Charlie spoke only what God’s word tells anyone who reads the Holy Scriptures. Anything outside of God’s grace is sinful. We’re all sinners in need of a savior. That’s the gospel truth. It may be uncomfortable, but that doesn’t make it any less accurate.
Aaron Edwards, a theology professor at Cliff College in England and father of five, knows a thing or two about being hated for taking a Biblical stance against homosexuality. After warning his peers about accepting a 2023 vote to accept same-sex marriage within the British Methodist church, he was suspended, fired, and ultimately evicted from his home. School officials also threatened to report him to the U.K.’s anti-terrorism office, Prevent.
Similarly, Bernard Randall, Christian chaplain at the Church of England (CofE), was reported to Prevent and ultimately forced out of his role for “telling students in a chapel sermon that it was OK to question LGBTQ ideology.” Randall told Christian Concern, “My story sends a message to other Christians that you are not free to talk about your faith. It seems it is no longer enough to just ‘tolerate’ LGBT ideology. You must accept it without question, and no debate is allowed without serious consequences. Someone else will decide what is and what isn’t acceptable, and suddenly you can become an outcast, possibly for the rest of your life.”
In Kirk’s case, as with these British clergymen, there was never any rebuke or directive, telling anyone how to live. Instead, all three of these men urged anyone who would listen to consult with God’s guidebook – the Bible – to obtain that advice. Repeating such wisdom isn’t hateful. It’s loving. It’s up to each of us, individually, to determine whether we want to read, heed, and obey God’s Word. Since people like Kirk’s killer can’t go after God for His message, they’re more than happy to attack people like Kirk for being a spokesperson for the same.
The amount of kindness, decency, patience, and love we demonstrate in sharing this message doesn’t seem to matter. Anything less than total acceptance of an alternate opinion is deemed hateful in today’s culture.
Worse than that, many have been conditioned to perceive the lack of acceptance as worthy of death. To put it more bluntly, anyone who stands for God rather than humanity doesn’t deserve to live. They deserve a bullet. They will reap what they sow. These messages and more have been circulating since Kirk’s death, and they are a sad testament to the degradation of our society.
The good news is that God’s love is more powerful than evil. It is a consuming fire. The devil may think he won the day by wreaking havoc, mayhem, and death across our nation with the recent slew of terror attacks against Christians, but all he’s done is empower those of us who see past our present traumas to God’s all-knowing purpose in bringing good out of every evil act. Over the past few months, Satan spurred Tyler Robinson into firing a bullet into the neck of Charlie Kirk in September, Robin Westman into killing two children and injuring 18 more at a Minneapolis Catholic school in August, and Thomas Jacob Sanford to drive his car through the front doors of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Michigan on Sunday, September 28th. Following his crash, Sanford began randomly shooting into the congregation of over 100 people, killing two and critically injuring another. Two additional victims later died in an ensuing fire set by Stanford, which also decimated the church building.
These acts of terror were seemingly enacted against those whose only perceived crimes were being Christian. It’s up to the rest of us to stand firm in our faith and demonstrate forgiveness in the face of such evil.
Kirk’s legacy, beliefs, and desire to show courage in the face of hate will live on forever. Charlie’s willingness to speak truth and love to a world filled with lies and deception is no longer just his mission. We are all Charlie Kirk now.
Even more critical than following in Kirk’s footsteps, we must model ourselves after Christ. If we must emulate anyone, it should be Jesus. Let us, as Christians, go forward in faith, remembering the one who died on a cross in demonstration of His love for us. The world hated Christ, just as they hated Charlie – and all Christians around the world. Now, more than ever, we can’t let hatred stop us from showing God’s love to those who need a Savior.
Dr. Ben Carson reminded those viewing Kirk’s memorial service that an assassin may have ended Kirk’s life at 12:24 pm, but the gospel of John tells us in chapter 12, verse 24 that “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” Drawing from this parallel, we can take comfort in knowing that many more lives will be committed to a greater purpose in living for Christ as a result of witnessing Kirk’s testimony – in life and in death.
Psalm 56:4 reminds us, “In God I will praise His Word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.” Let us all stand firmly for Christ – no matter the cost.
The world hated Jesus, and it will also hate us. Let us always show love and forgiveness in return. After all, they will know we are Christians by our love.
